Three homeowners associations have filed a petition in Third District Court challenging a monumental development-related decision Park City leaders made in late 2023 regarding the future of Snow Park at Deer Valley Resort.
The American Flag Homeowners Association, the Pinnacle Homeowners Association and the Morning Star Estates Homeowners Association filed the case against City Hall in mid-January. They want a judge to prohibit the municipal government from processing two key development applications and prohibit City Hall from finalizing a public-private partnership that was negotiated with Deer Valley. The case also seeks a reversal of a Park City Council vote regarding the matter. No court dates had been set by the middle of the week.
The City Council in mid-December authorized a landmark agreement with Deer Valley as the resort pursues a major development on the land where the parking lots outside Snow Park Lodge are located. There are development rights attached to the land dating to the 1970s, when an overall approval was secured to create Deer Valley.
The resort, though, must secure another approval before work would be able to commence. A project would involve residences, commercial space, a hotel and entertainment. Large garages would be built to account for parking lost as the lots are developed, and the project would trim 20% of today’s parking spaces.
Deer Valley’s concept, though, calls for City Hall to vacate parts of Deer Valley Drive West and Deer Valley Drive South, which would remove the sections of road from the map of public streets as part of the overall traffic circulation designs for a Snow Park development.
The City Council backed the concept of vacating the road sections after a lengthy negotiation between Park City officials and Deer Valley that resulted in a public-private partnership involving the two sides addressing transportation and housing. City Hall and Deer Valley will each contribute $15 million as part of the partnership.
There were supporters and opponents of the agreement, and there has also been concern in lower Deer Valley about the concept for development at Snow Park. Deer Valley, after reaching the agreement with City Hall, needs to rework the development concept.
The court filing says the homeowners associations that brought the case represent hundreds of people with properties on or close to Deer Valley Drive and covers the talks that led to the public-private partnership. It claims there was not good cause for City Hall to agree to vacate the road sections and Deer Valley did not submit alternative plans that would have allowed a project without that aspect of the concept.
It also says the road sections have “significant utility to the City,” including “for the operation of critical bus routes that drop (Deer Valley) patrons literally at the resort’s doorstep.” The City Council “completely ignored the overwhelming evidence of significant utility of the” road sections, the filing says.
The homeowners associations also claim City Hall did not receive “fair and adequate consideration” in exchange for vacating the road sections. The $15 million from Deer Valley “is vaguely designated to be used for an off-site regional public transit facility (near S.R. 248) and affordable (low income) housing, neither of which has been officially approved or designed, let alone cost-estimated,” the filing says.
Deer Valley “stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the project, perhaps billions, especially if the Winter Olympics come to Utah in 2034, as the City and Council acknowledged on the record they fully anticipate will happen,” the homeowners associations say.
The filing says the homeowners associations will suffer material injuries such as “trespassing and other intrusions by others” into the neighborhoods, more traffic and increased costs.
City Hall said in a prepared statement about the case: “The City Council and Planning Commission worked for over two years to ensure that the process and determinations were in the best interest of Park City and met all applicable legal standards.”
The court case is another notable moment in the discussions about the future of Snow Park that have stretched for more than two years. Deer Valley held talks with the Park City Planning Commission about the project before entering the negotiations with the elected officials about the vacation of the road sections and a public-private partnership. There were public concerns expressed at the Planning Commission level about issues like the road network and traffic.
Deer Valley is eventually expected to return to the Planning Commission with an updated submittal that reflects the agreement reached with the elected officials. The resort in late 2023 said it aimed to submit the new plans in the spring, but it is not clear whether the challenge from the homeowners associations will impact the timeline.